Obama's front-page reign

Papers across the world had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity Wednesday to cover their front pages with the news that America had elected its first black president. Here's a look at some of the choices, both good and bad, that editors around the globe made to commemorate the election. The one universal lesson here: Front page advertisements ruin historic news like Obama's victory. To find that we need look no further than our own Pioneer Press... OBAMA WINS!! MADAGASCAR 2 OPENING SOON!!!

Just... YOUCH. Couldn't the paper have just made the decision to have no page one ads for the day following Election Day? It just looks so tacky contrasting the Obama victory with a cartoon film starring Chris Rock.

The Strib's lack of ads alone makes it the better page.

The Sun Times, one of Obama's hometown papers, went with this distinguished, calm look. I don't like it a whole lot, it looks like his author photo or something and does absolutely nothing to capture the palpable excitement and historic feel of the evening. And doesn't he look sweaty or something?

The Tribune's look is much better and has a more current look.

Obama's home state's paper has a nice look, except for that hideous Gucci ad underneath their native son basking in his presidential glory.

The Hartford Courant gets mega-bonus points for taking a risk and going lengthwise to show the whole Obama family.

Connecticut's Journal-Inquirer loses major points for altering the masthead to make the J look like check mark. It just doesn't work. And again, front page ads undercut the whole look.

The Laramie Boomerang (great name for a paper) gave the president-elect relatively short shrift on their front page in order to focus on some tax issue and local elections. I'm not sure that was a wise decision even in the land of Dick Cheney.

McCain's home paper does a great job of acknowledging the importance of Obama's win as well as cash in on McCain's local appeal.